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Catholic nationalism and feminism in twentieth-century IrelandJennifer M. Donohue

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Recommended CitationDonohue, Jennifer M., "Catholic nationalism and feminism in twentieth-century Ireland" (2009). Honors Theses. Paper 647.

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Catholic Nationalism and Feminism in

Twentieth-Century Ireland

by

Jennifer Donohue

Honors Thesis

in

History University of Richmond

Richmond, VA

April 24, 2009

Advisors: John Gordon and Robert Kenzer

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Abstract:

In the early 1900s, Ireland experienced a surge in nationalism as its political leanings shifted away from allegiance to the British Parliament and towards a pro-Ireland and pro-independence stance. The landscape of Ireland during this period was changed dramatically by the subversive popularity of the Irish political party, Sinn Fein, which campaigned for an Ireland for the Irish. Much of the political rhetoric surrounding this campaign alludes to the fact that Ireland was not inherently “British” because it defined itself by two unique, un-British characteristics – the Gaelic language and the Catholic faith.

As Sinn Fein’s hold on Ireland increased, the Catholic Church took advantage of Ireland’s pro-Catholicism political climate and became an extraordinarily powerful force in the everyday lives of Irish people. This thesis questions whether or not the religiosity associated with Ireland’s uniqueness was also associated with freedom and independence for the women of Ireland during this period.

This thesis poses several key questions in order to posit the role of both nationalism and Church in the Suffrage movement. First, was it possible for Catholic women in early twentieth century Ireland to remain true to their faith while also seeking the right to vote? Additionally, how did feminists go about achieving the seemingly impossible task of appealing to the “proper” authority when lobbying for voting rights – by imploring the rebellious Sinn Feiners or by pleading to the British crown? How did they resolve the “Catch-22” of being either a rebel or a traitor? How did the Irish people react to militant feminism during a time of militant nationalism? Was it encouraged of discouraged?

This thesis concludes that the most “subversive” feminists who made the largest strides for women in Ireland also became the most rejected both by society and the church. This is affirmed in the anti-feminist nature of the Constitution of Ireland of 1937.

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Chapter 1: The Beginning of the Catholic-Protestant Divide in Ireland

The story of Ireland’s violent past begins with the unlikely character of a woman,

Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII of England. Anne and Henry began

their love affair while he was still married to Katherine of Aragon. In 1533, Henry, who

was desperate to have a son and realized that Katherine was no longer able to bear

children, decided to take the drastic measure of securing an annulment for his and

Katherine’s marriage. After Pope Clement VII refused to grant the annulment, Henry

decided to take matters into his own hands by aligning England with the Protestant

Reformation and severing all ties with the Catholic Church. In doing so, he officially

created the Church of England and introduced the practice of divorce into his country.

However, he also introduced a far more detrimental divide into the political culture of

England – a religious divide between his followers and the adherents of the traditional

Roman Catholic Church.1

Henry’s decision to abandon the Vatican did not sit well with his newly-colonized

subjects in the territory of Ireland, where the majority of the population identified

themselves as Catholic and were unwilling to bend to Henry VIII’s desire to have a new

wife. It also rankled the Catholic monarchs of mainland Europe, particularly the Holy

Roman Emperor Charles V, the nephew of Katherine of Aragon. In attempting to satisfy

his personal whims, Henry turned the political fabric of Europe inside-out. The Irish

people were already resisting Henry’s encroachments into their territory, and this

“manipulation of Christianity” cemented their distaste for his authority. Youssef

Courbage notes the presence of this attitude in Ireland:

1 Thomas E. Hachey, Joseph M. Hernon, Jr. and Lawrence J. McCaffrey, The Irish Experience: A Concise History (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996), 17.

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It was only when Henry VIII founded the Church of England (in 1534) that the identities of Irish Catholics and British Protestants diverged. Religion became the major differentiating factor between the native population, who were almost all Roman Catholic, and the immigrants, who were mostly Scottish Presbyterian or Anglican.2

Thus, Henry’s actions not only pitted England against Ireland, but also positioned the

Protestant European states against the Catholic European states in a conflict so deeply

entrenched in theology that it was sure to bring Europe to the brink of violence for many

years to come.

In the 1530s, Ireland was not yet a formal territory, but rather, a collection of

baronies and monastic settlements. The rulers of the Tudor state (Henry VIII and his

daughters, Mary I and Elizabeth I) encouraged the English to capture land in Ireland and

claim it for the English Crown. English landlords chose to act on the advice of their

monarchs and in doing so established the Plantation system in which Protestants became

the primary landowners in a territory that was dominated by a Catholic majority.

Courbage explains, “The share of Catholic-owned land, which had been virtually 100%

in 1600, had fallen to 59% by 1641, 22% in 1688 and was barely 14% in 1703.”3 The

majority of these Protestant planters set up their livelihood in the northernmost region of

Ireland known as Ulster.

Apart from the process of Anglo-Irish “planting,” which guided England’s

economic colonization of Ireland, there was also a series of military events that denote

the transition of Ireland’s political path from English colony to English territory. The

first, the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, marked the culmination of the international dispute

over the balance of power between Protestant and Catholic nation-states in Europe. The 2 Youssef Courbage, "The Demographic Factor in Ireland's Movement Towards Partition (1607-1921)," Population: An English Selection 9, 1997: 172, http://www.jstor.org/ (accessed 7 December 2008). 3 Courbage, “The Demographic Factor in Ireland's Movement Towards Partition (1607-1921)," 172.

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Battle of the Boyne arose from the conflicting religious sentiments born out of the

English Glorious Revolution, which confirmed the religious allegiance of the English

monarchy to Protestantism with the ascent of William II of Orange to the British throne.4

The threat of finally losing Ireland to the English-Protestant power structure drew

Catholic France into the conflict as well, which erupted on July 1, 1690 in the Battle of

the Boyne near what is now Drogheda, Ireland. The Catholic troops of Ireland and

France fought against the Protestant troops of England, the Netherlands, Denmark, the

Ulster Scots and the French Huguenots. It marked the beginning of a bloody, year-long

stand off between the Catholic and Protestant powers of Europe. The Protestant side was

eventually victorious and the power of the Protestant Ascendancy class in Ireland greatly

increased. Additionally, the English signed an Act of Union with Scotland in 1707,

creating the nation-state of Great Britain and gaining the economic and political power of

Scotland.

In the late 1700s, the Irish attempted to rid themselves of the English colonizers

once again. Inspired by the success of the American and French revolutions, Irish rebels

laid plans to conduct an uprising against the British crown with the aid of France once

again. The revolt was set to take place in Dublin in 1798. The French sent a force of

15,000 soldiers aboard French naval ships for what they perceived to be an excellent

opportunity to weaken the British state. However, terrible weather and a bout of sickness

forced many ships to head back to France – the battle plans became useless and the

leaders of the uprising were discovered, tried for treason and hanged.5

4 Hachey, Hernon, and McCaffrey, 19. 5 Hachey, Hernon, Jr. and McCaffrey, 48.

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The next important conflict between Great Britain and Ireland didn’t occur until

the early 1900s, but was one of the most politically significant events during the five-

hundred year conflict. During the Easter Rising of 1916, a small group of pro-Irish

independence Catholic rebels attempted to take a stand against the British military. The

military stand-off between the Irish Republicans and the British Army took place in

Dublin from April 24 to April 30. The Irish side was organized by the Irish Republican

Brotherhood and was composed of factions from the Irish Volunteers led by Patrick

Pearse and the Irish Citizen Army led by James Connolly. The British side was

composed of the official British Army. The venture was suicidal – a group of roughly

thirty men captured the General Post Office in Dublin and attempted to take on the

entirety of British forces stationed in Ireland. The rebellion was promptly squashed by

the British military. Irish participants and leaders were immediately executed. However,

the British military victory and cruel treatment of their Irish prisoners provided a rallying

point for the Irish people. The British hoped to send a message of non-tolerance to the

Irish by executing the leaders of the rebellion, but instead, gave them a motive to rebel

once more.6

The importance of the Easter Rising is not defined by the losses and gains of

either the British or the Irish, but rather by the precedent of guerilla warfare and

martyrdom for a political cause that was set by the “heroes” of the event. The Irish

Citizen Army and the Irish Volunteers who took part in the Easter Rising would

eventually collapse their respective organizations into the umbrella organization of the

Irish Republican Army (the IRA), and would attract a following of young men and

6 Hachey, Hernon, Jr. and McCaffrey, 157.

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women that preferred to martyr themselves for their country and their faith than to

acknowledge the authority of the British Crown and Parliament over their nation.

The reverence of martyrdom for the Irish cause established its position as a

precedent for self-sacrifice during the Anglo-Irish War, which began in 1919 and lasted

until 1921. This Irish War for Independence was driven by the IRA’s guerilla-style

tactics. Richard English quotes Lawrence McCaffrey in elaborating upon this theory: “In

January 1919 … Sinn Fein’s passive resistance to British authority evolved into a guerilla

war of liberation. … Dressed as civilians, members of the IRA … ambushed military

lorries, captured arms, assassinated suspected spies and informers and shot soldiers and

policemen.”7 Tensions between each side ran so deep that military actions were

conducted with little value for human life in either direction.

As bloody and cruel as the IRA’s tactics were, they aided the IRA in achieving

political victory. After concluding that the British economy was suffering from the

amount of money and manpower that the war was costing, British Prime Minister David

Lloyd George initiated treaty talks with IRA leader Michael Collins and came to an

agreement that ended the war. The treaty gave Ireland the status of an autonomous

dominion within the state of Great Britain, but also partitioned the six northern Irish

counties of Ulster, denying Ulster this same status. This was the preferred outcome for

Ulster Protestants.

The treaty was unacceptable to the more radical members of the IRA – it did not

give Ireland the pure independence that that it wanted and it completely abandoned

Northern Ireland. On the other hand, it was the first opportunity for peace that Ireland

7 Richard English, Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), 161.

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had seen since the beginning of the war. The conflict of opinion over whether or not to

accept the treaty divided the IRA into pro-treaty and anti-treaty camps. The result of this

division was a bloody, year-long civil war in which each side used the tactics that they

had learned during their fight against the British to attack one another. The British

supplied troops, weapons and artillery to the pro-treaty side, thus ensuring its victory.

This bloody, five-hundred year history between Catholic Ireland and Protestant

Britain set the backdrop for the suffrage movement’s campaign in Ireland. The concept

of suffrage did not start to gain popularity on the Emerald Isle until the late 1800s, but

suffrage and independence for Catholic men had been a debatable issue since Henry VIII

began encouraging English landlords to capture Irish land and establish plantations. As

of the early 1900s, the Irish had not yet achieved the Catholic independence that most of

the population sorely wanted. This left the question of women’s suffrage up in the air –

was suffrage to be considered second to Irish-Catholic independence, or were the rights

of women to be posited as equal to the rights of men?

The grapple between nationalist and feminist sentiments was fought on a

grassroots level throughout the evolution of the social change movement in the United

Kingdom and Ireland. While both British and Irish women’s suffrage movements had the

terminal goal of gaining the franchise for women, it became clear throughout the

lobbying process that British and Irish women had different ideas about where they

wanted this right to originate. Once content to receive their rights from Westminster,

Irish women shifted their focus to Dublin as nationalist sentiment swept throughout

Ireland in the early twentieth-century.

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Chapter 2: The Division: Irish and British Suffrage Movements as Separate Entities?

Irish suffragists during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were

caught in a double-bind that made it impossible for them to develop an adequate and

successful political agenda for their campaign. This double-bind resulted from the

complicated political climate of Ireland during the Home Rule debates of the early

twentieth century. “Home Rule” meant that Ireland would still be part of the British

Empire, but would have its own parliament. This option was attractive to Irish Catholics

because it was the first step in achieving complete, political independence and provided

the option of having a government that might look more favorably on their faith and on

their lifestyle. It was also an attractive option for wealthy, Protestant landlords because

this group understood that as the wealthiest and most powerful class of people in Ireland,

they would be assuming leadership of the new Irish Parliament.8

On the one hand, Irish women had the option of allying their political movement

with the Irish nationalist perspective by campaigning for a clause on women’s suffrage to

be attached to the Home Rule Bill. On the other hand, the Irish suffragists had the choice

of allying with the British suffrage movement and ignoring the prospect of Home Rule

for Ireland by campaigning with the mentality that suffrage for women should precede

Home Rule for Ireland.

The Irish suffragists were faced with the difficult decision of placing their Irish

nationalism above their femininity or their femininity above their Irish nationalism.

Either choice would have resulted in negative repercussions for the movement depending

upon the future result of the Home Rule question. If the women chose to ally with the 8 Ben Walsh, “The End of the British Empire in Ireland,” British Empire, Kew, The British National Archives, http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/empire/g3/cs4/background.htm (accessed March 21, 2009).

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nationalists, they risked isolating the Ulster suffragists and losing the franchise should the

Home Rule bill fail. However, if they allied with the British, they risked losing the favor

of the Irish politicians which would have been disastrous should the Home Rule bill pass.

Much of the failure associated with the Irish Suffrage Movement between the end of the

nineteenth century and World War I was not a result of poor political planning on the part

of the Irish suffragists, but of the overshadowing politics of the Home Rule debate.

In 1906, a woman’s position in Great Britain was that of a non-citizen. The most

important consequence of a woman’s inability to call herself a subject of the crown of the

United Kingdom was her lack of ability to vote or to take part in any sort of official

political gathering or procedure. Women were not only barred from politics through

policy, they were also physically barred from even observing a session of Parliament.

The 1906 edition of Dod’s Parliamentary Companion explains the existence and

metaphorical importance of the bar that obstructed the view of Parliament from the

building’s ladies’ gallery: “Ladies are excluded from the House of Commons, but there is

a gallery above that of the reporters from which, concealed by a grating in the front, they

are allowed an imperfect view of the House.”9 A woman’s view of politics was

imperfect from her seat in the ladies’ gallery, yet was made even more imperfect by her

inability to participate, even on the most mundane level of being able to vote.

Irish suffragists were constantly faced with the demand to identify themselves

throughout their campaign to gain the right to vote. Margaret Ward explains the

complicated, political nature of this identification crisis:

Within this polarized situation there were two obvious paths of intervention for women anxious to make their own political claim: either

9 Claire Eustance, Protests from Behind the Grille: Gender and the Transformation of Parliament, 1867 – 1918 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997), 107.

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to put pressure exclusively upon the faction they identified with politically – home rulers or unionists – in order to ensure women’s enfranchisement would be included within any constitutional settlement; or to campaign wholeheartedly for one faction, in the expectation that once the crisis had been resolved, their victorious allies would reward their zeal.10

Ward emphasizes that Irish suffragists had to make a political decision during their

campaign for the vote. She also delineates that it was possible for women to assume a

passive role in the campaign for suffrage, but that doing this still required taking a stance

on Home Rule. An Irish woman could passively support suffrage by individually

aligning herself with either the Irish nationalists or the British and Ulster Unionists on the

question of Home Rule. The idealistic notion behind taking a passive role was that

simply by proving themselves capable of taking part in the complex political debate of

Home Rule, women would prove their capacity for understanding politics and would

subsequently be given the right to vote once the side that they had aligned with was able

to achieve its political aspirations.

Whether a woman desiring the right to vote wanted to take an active or a passive

role in the struggle, she had to assume some sort of a political stance on Home Rule.

Therefore, it is not unreasonable to claim that the question of women’s suffrage in Ireland

was inextricably tied to the Home Rule movement and Ireland’s fight for independence

from Great Britain. As Margaret Ward attests, the suffrage question cannot be viewed in

a “historical vacuum” and will always be influenced by the national political climate:

“Feminism cannot be viewed in isolation from other political considerations.”11

Therefore, in order to understand the pre-World War I failure of the suffrage movement,

10 Margaret Ward, “‘Suffrage First, Above All Else!’ An Account of the Irish Suffrage Movement,” Feminist Review 10 (Spring 1982): 22. 11 Margaret Ward, “Conflicting Interests: The British and Irish Suffrage Movements,” Feminist Review 50 (Summer 1995): 127.

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it makes sense to study the Irish and British approach to achieving suffrage by

recognizing that each movement had separate political aspirations that were related to

their stance on the question of Home Rule for Ireland.

The British suffrage movement was led by the Women’s Social and Political

Union, an organization formed in 1903 as an alternative to a pre-existing, failed suffrage

group known as the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. The WSPU, as it

came to be called, was headed by Emmeline Pankhurst and her two daughters, Christabel

and Sylvia, who came to be very well known in the women’s suffrage community for

their extreme devotion to the cause.12 The Pankhursts’ WSPU was a more militant group

than its numerous predecessors, evoking members to engage in violent acts such as

committing arson against the postal service, conducting violent rallies outside of

Parliament and throwing stones at the Prime Minister’s residence, 10 Downing Street.

According to Elizabeth Crawford, “The WSPU’s militant tactics evoked sympathy

among the younger Irish political activists.”13 Violence seemed to be the common thread

of political understanding between young Irish and British women and as the WSPU

moved its policy planning towards a more militant agenda, it won the hearts and minds of

Irish suffragists.

At this stage of the suffrage movement, the ideologies of the Irish and the British

suffragists seemed to fall in line with one another. There even seemed to be solidarity

among the nationalities rooted in a common understanding that all suffragists were

women and all of these women were British citizens, united under the banner of equality.

12 John Simkin, “Women’s Social and Political Union,” Spartacus Educational. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wwspu.htm (accessed March 21, 2009). 13 Elizabeth Crawford, The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland. (New York: Routledge, 2006), 260.

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This solidarity, Crawford claims, can be observed in a lecture delivered by a Dublin

suffragist, Anne Robertson, in reference to the British suffrage movement:

In her lecture Anne Robertson’s cultural stance may be deduced from her use of the term ‘English’ to mean ‘British,’ and ‘British’ definitely encompassed ‘Irish.’ This was not a usage that would have been condoned by later campaigners. … In addition, Anne Robinson dwelt at length on the specific disability suffered by widowed mothers, whether Catholic or Protestant.14

Robertson’s egalitarian tone represented a hope that all British women would

unite in the struggle for the vote no matter whether they considered themselves to

be British, Irish, Catholic or Protestant.

However, this egalitarian hope did not last. Without the knowledge or consent of

the WSPU, a bureaucratic decision was made by Westminster in 1907 which gave

English, Scottish and Welsh women the privilege of sitting on regional, government

councils, but excluded Irish women. This decision may appear to be relatively

unimportant from the outset; however, it caused a divide among the national suffrage

movements of Great Britain and Ireland that had lasting consequences. Crawford

supports the notion that the decision to leave Irish women out of regional councils

resulted in the severing of ties between British and Irish suffrage movements.15

Westminster’s decision to exclude Irish women from regional councils provided

Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington, an Irish feminist leader in Dublin, with ammunition to form

a separate Irish suffrage society. In 1908, Sheehy-Skeffington founded the Irish

Women’s Franchise League, the IWFL, which sought to recognize the uniqueness of the

Irish woman within the realm of the suffrage debate. Crawford notes, “Margaret

Cousins, who … was one of the co-founders, recorded: ‘Hanna asked us and some other 14 Crawford, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 254. 15 Crawford, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 260.

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friends to join in working out a scheme for a militant suffrage society suitable to the

different political situation of Ireland.’”16 Sheehy-Skeffington demanded the franchise

for women, but dually demanded independence for Ireland. The IWFL was not the first

women’s organization to be formed in Dublin, and its existence caused much anxiety

within the Irish feminist movement. Many men and women in Ireland felt that the Irish

Republican movement was much more important than the women’s suffrage movement

and believed that organizations such as the IWFL represented a distraction from the

greater cause of Irish freedom from Great Britain. The Irish women not only had to

contend with the anti-suffrage political sentiment of the greater United Kingdom, but also

encountered the added burden of combatting anti-Irish legislation that blocked the road to

equal rights for women.

The IWFL’s creation marked the beginning of an irreconcilable divide between

the British and Irish suffrage movements. The divide became wider once the Home Rule

debate was introduced into the political mix. After the 1910 elections, Herbert Asquith,

Prime Minister of Great Britain, needed the support of the Irish Nationalist Party in order

to allow his Liberal government to maintain power. John Redmond, the leader of the

Irish Nationalist Party, agreed to support Asquith’s government provided that Asquith

gave him something in return – Home Rule for Ireland. Therefore, the possibility of Irish

Home Rule started to look less like a dream and more like a reality during the years after

1911. The balancing act between the Liberal Party and the Irish Nationalist Party had a

severing effect on the British and Irish women’s suffrage movement.17

16 Crawford, The Women’s Suffrage Movement, 260. 17 Ward, “Conflicting Interests,” 131.

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This severing effect resulted from a series of events and circumstances that

occurred between the WSPU and the IWFL. First, the WSPU reacted negatively when

the question of Home Rule for Ireland started to look like a real possibility – they

condemned Home Rule and they dually criticized the idea of attaching the suffrage

movement to Home Rule. Second, as Ward explains, they demanded that Irish women

place the greater fight for suffrage above nationalistic, political claims: “Christabel

Pankhurst’s announcement was that the WSPU declared war upon the Irish party. WSPU

strategy now was to declare ‘no votes for women – no home rule.’”18 This tactic was

easily accessible to Northern Irish women who supported Union and, thus, caused a

second divide in the Irish suffrage movement, isolating Northern Irish suffragists from

suffragists in greater Ireland. As a result, the movement in Northern Ireland became a

violent compilation of differing feminist and nationalist ideologies. In fact, the most

violent women’s suffrage campaigns took place in Antrim and Down, counties located in

Northern Ireland.19

The WSPU understood that the prospect of Home Rule for Ireland had caused a

division within the suffrage movement. However, the organization simply refused to

accept the IWFL’s claims that the division was necessary in order to recognize that the

political situation of Irish and British women was different. Christabel Pankhurst is cited

explaining that the politics of Home Rule should not impact the Irish suffrage question

and that the women of Ireland should continue to ally themselves with the WSPU: “We

have come to the conclusion that so far as the WSPU is concerned, there ought not to be a

18 Ward, “Conflicting Interests,” 131. 19 Ward, “Conflicting Interests,” 128.

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distinction between the English movement and the Irish movement.”20 However, the

IWFL was not ready to accept the British suffrage league’s claims that Irish nationalism

was trivial compared to the greater suffrage question. Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington

disagreed with Pankhurst and affirmed that nationalism could not be separated from the

question of women’s suffrage within Ireland, as the question of equality and freedom for

Irish women was connected to both an Irish and a feminist identity. Pankhurst simply did

not understand this connection and could not reason with it.

As a result of the WSPU’s continued presence in Northern Ireland and Northern

Ireland’s determination to remain a part of the union, the IWFL was unable to establish a

stable existence in the North. The WSPU continued to push its apolitical, anti-nationalist

agenda throughout the counties of Ulster, and the IWFL, Ward notes, was fully aware of

this strategy; “Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington admitted that in Belfast they were regarded as

being ‘tainted with nationalism’ and although she maintained links with Northern

women, the IWFL had little presence there.”21 Each suffrage group was moving in a

different direction, and the success of the individual suffrage groups was contingent upon

the political success or failure of their male counterparts. As the Home Rule movement

failed to gain acceptance in Northern Ireland, the IWFL, a uniquely Irish suffrage group,

failed to gain acceptance amongst the women of Northern Ireland. The Ulster Irish did

not want to identify with a group that based its claims to suffrage around the principles of

Irish nationalism.

The start of World War I in 1914 complicated the suffrage movement even

further. The British suffragists immediately dropped their agenda in order to assist with

20 Quoted in Ward, “Conflicting Interests,” 137. 21 Ward, “Conflicting Interests,” 139.

Pg. 17

the war cause. The Irish suffragists, on the other hand, aligned their policies with more

radical nationalist groups and chose to view the war as an imperialist tool of the British

state designed to control and coerce the actions of the Irish people. While the Nationalist

Party was content to “shelf” the implementation of Home Rule until after the Great War,

the suffragists wanted immediate action in terms of their own political demands.

Therefore, the IWFL continued its pursuit to gain the right to vote and subsequently

linked this cause with a protest of the war. The IWFL’s propaganda magazine, The Irish

Citizen, published the group’s official position: “Votes for Women Now! Damn Your

War!”22

The British released a propaganda campaign targeting Irish women as well in an

attempt to inspire a sense of camaraderie and to counter the campaign of the IWFL.

23 24 A poster bearing the slogan “eat less bread” implored a red-headed Irish woman to join in

the war effort by cooking more carefully. See Illustration 1. Another poster targeted any 22 Ward, “Conflicting Interests,” 143. 23 Michael Duffy, Propaganda Posters – United Kingdom (Online: First World War, 2007), http://www.firstworld war.com/posters/uk.htm (accessed March 21, 2009). 24 Duffy, Propaganda Posters – United Kingdom.

Pg. 18

female British citizen and asked all women to take up the plough that her soldier

husband/brother/father had left behind for the purpose of feeding her fellow British

citizens throughout the war. See Illustration 2. The British government asked wo

fill the roles of men while male citizens were off at war, yet, continued to deny wom

the right to vote during the course of the war.

It is apparent that the British failure to understand the Irish women’s claims to

nationalism throughout the struggle to gain the

men to

en

franchise not only split the British and the

Irish, b

Franchise League and the Women’s Social and Political Union is that

inspired concerns and proved to be disastrous for the Irish, accentuating

The Br Irish

women ent proved that it, like the

ome

blic of 1916 provided the first instance in which the

contrib

in

ut also split the Northern and Southern Irish. As Margaret Ward explains:

The evidence presented … of the relationship between the Irish Women’s

British intervention in Irish affairs was motivated purely from British-

divisions which Irish women had hoped to modify.25

itish government continued in the footsteps of the WSPU by imploring

to take part in World War I. In doing so, the governm

WSPU, did not understand that the Irish feminist cause was inextricably tied to the

Nationalist Party’s politics. Thus, the failure of the Irish Suffrage Movement during the

pre-World War I era was the result of its ties to the Home Rule Movement. Since H

Rule for Ireland was not implemented before WWI, the suffrage movement in Ireland

also failed to come to fruition.

Irish women did not achieve equal status in Ireland until many years after WWI.

The Declaration of the Irish Repu

utions of Irish women to civil society were recognized and affirmed by Irish

political leaders. The Declaration affirmed the equal rights of all Irish men and women

the political process:

25 Ward, “Conflicting Interests,” 145.

Pg. 19

The Irish Republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of

civil liberty, eqevery Irishman and Irish woman. The Republic guarantees religious and

ual rights and equal opportunities of all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole

lly, ,

Howev ithin

the Pro ot yet have the right to vote as the

er

lowed

the age of thirty to vote in 1918 with the passage of the Representation of

the

it

nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equaand oblivious of the differences carefully fostered by an alien governmentwhich have divided a minority in the past.26 er, while the Irish nationalists declared their support for women’s equality w

clamation of the Irish Republic, women did n

Irish Republic had not yet become a legitimate, independent nation. Shortly after the

Declaration was signed, the Republican movement took significant losses after the East

Rising of 1916 which proved to have disastrous repercussions in the Irish fight for

independence.

Irish women did not gain the legal right to vote until the United Kingdom al

all women over

the People Act. This act did not provide for a distinction between Irish women and

British women as the British government still considered Ireland to be a part of Great

Britain. The United Kingdom’s decision represented a step forward for feminism on

British Isles, but a step backwards for Irish nationalism. The IWFL was not satisfied –

wanted to gain full suffrage for all Irish women and a legitimate, independent Irish

government. This did not happen until 1922, with the inception of the Irish Free State.

Irish women did fair better than British women in the suffrage movement.

Westminster did not give equal voting rights to British women until 1928. Thus, the

IWFL’s independent Irish women’s movement proved to achieve its goals six years

before the WSPU’s British Unionist women’s movement.

26 “Proclamation of the Irish Republic,” April 24, 1916, copy on http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/irishproclamation1916.htm (accessed March 21, 2009).

Pg. 20

Chapter 3: Identity and the Irish Republican Woman

Even though the IWFL was successful in gaining the franchise for women in

Ireland, it was not without extreme opposition from more traditional Irish society; “The

Church opposed feminism and women’s suffrage as a challenge to the central role of

women in domestic life. Irish politicians opposed suffrage because it challenged the

primacy of men in the home, the marketplace, and the corridors of power.”27 Opposition

to the women’s suffrage movement in Ireland could be found amongst political leaders,

but also drifted to the rest of society through accessible mediums such as newspapers and

plays.

William Butler Yeats epitomizes the idealization of the Irish Republican woman

in his one-act play, Cathleen Ni Houlihan, which tells the story of an old woman who

turns into a young beauty when Irish men die for their country. The play was published

in October 1902, three years before the official establishment of Sinn Fein, but during the

heart of the Irish Republican Brotherhood’s rise to power.

Yeats’s play paints an accurate picture of Ireland in 1798, before the Irish

Rebellion against the British. The play begins with a modest Catholic family anxiously

awaiting the marriage of their eldest son, Michael. The mother and father are depicted

fussing about their new soon-to-be daughter-in-law’s dowry when their conversation is

interrupted by a commotion coming from outside their cottage. An old woman appears

on their doorstep, alongside Michael. Michael and the old woman enter the house; the

latter seems to be in a trance-like state. She talks about Ireland’s past battles and about

the brave young men who died for Ireland’s sake. She refuses to take any money or any

27 Richard B. Finnegan and Edward T. McCarron, Ireland: Historical Echoes, Contemporary Politics (Boulder: Westview Press, 2000), 160.

Pg. 21

food from the fa then he will

not be m er.

el’s

The old woman in the story is the legendary Cathleen Ni Houlihan, the old

woman

an

e British.

an

’s

ther and tells Michael that if he gives her what she wants,

arrying tomorrow. She gets up and leaves and Michael walks outside with h

The family’s youngest son, Patrick, brings news that French ships have finally

appeared off the shores of Ireland. He also mentions that a beautiful young woman

walked past him as he ran home to give his parents the news about the French. Micha

fiancé runs up to the cottage to talk to him about the impending war. Michael, however,

walks away, leaving his family and bride-to-be in the dust behind him. He is about to go

sacrifice his life for the old woman turned beauty, Cathleen Ni Houlihan.28

that suddenly becomes young and vibrant whenever young men give their lives to

defend Ireland. She is the definition of an Irish heroine because she represents all that

Irish woman is supposed to be – beautiful, patient, nationalistic and encouraging. Her

age transformation symbolizes the idea that the country has the potential to be reborn and

made vibrant should the young Irish men go fight against th

Cathleen Ni Houlihan is a heroine – she is a symbol of a revolutionary wom

from the late 1700s. Her story became popular in the 1900s as opinion in Ireland became

more and more anti-British. Yeats’s play publicized the role that women were supposed

to play during the conflict between the British and the Irish – one of encouragement and

sacrifice. He chose to reference the 1798 uprising because of its parallels to the Irish

political and military situation in the early 1900s – one of miserable dependence. Yeats

casting of the Cathleen Ni Houlihan archetype had a lasting effect on the Irish populace.

with

: The Macmillan Company, 1924), 1 - 9. 28 William Butler Yeats, Plays in Prose and Verse, Written for an Irish Theatre, and Generallythe Help of a Friend, by W. B. Yeats (New York

Pg. 22

It is interesting to note that this archetype was not only perpetuated by men, but

by the women of Ireland as well. The Irish nationalist women’s newspaper, Bean na

hÉirean

r

and strive to

be Cath

answered my question as to the apparent contradiction in the ability of ies. ‘Why

it is precisely their ability that is the cause,’ she exclaimed; ‘they do not

French women have succeeded, in spite of the laws, to make themselves

husbands.

Caomanac, like many other women in Dublin at the time, believed that the agency that

women commanded in their home was more important than the political agency that they

would earn by gaining the right to vote.

The theme of female self-sacrifice during the 1798 uprising is inscribed in

Ireland’s history by other writers as well. Terence MacSwiney, former Mayor of the City

n, published an ad for cloth that promised to make its owner look like the

epitomized Cathleen Ni Houlihan: “Dripsey! The ‘Kathleen Ni Houlihan’ are lovelie

than ever! The prices lower than ever! By wearing Dripsey Dress cloths the sensible

women of Ireland have DOUBLED the Dripsey Mills in two years.”29 Alongside

advertisements for dress cloths and cherry-flavored cold medicines are calls for

Irishwomen who are true republicans to restore Ireland to her native heritage

leen Ni Houlihan.

Yet another example of women arguing against suffrage in Bean na hÉireann is

an argument published by Maedo Caomanac, which attempts to compare the Irish

woman’s suffrage movement with the French woman’s suffrage movement:

Madame Oddo Deflau, one of the militant feminists of France …

French women and their long endurance and their legal disabilit

suffer as much as one would think. … ‘By their personal characters

not only the rulers of their homes but the helpers, often the guides, of their 30

29 “Dripsey Mills Ad,” Bean na hÉireann, January 1909, vol. 1 no. 3. National Library of Ireland. 30 Maedo Caomanac, “The Woman’s Movement in France,” Bean na hÉireann, January 1909: vol. 1 no. 3. National Library of Ireland.

Pg. 23

of Cork

m

, the

to France on his great mission, he is troubled by the thought of his

clinging arms around him, telling him with tears, of their children and his

country? No; let the diary speak: "My wife especially, whose courage and terests were not in the least abated by all

her past sufferings, supplicated me to let no consideration of her or our

and my duty to my country.

MacSwiney enforced Yeats’s belief that women best served their country during its time

of need if they encouraged their male counterparts to go to war. He also went on to

describ

counten

wonder manded

and never failing to answer the call, till her task is done.” Thus, the ideal Republican

the ideal, Republican woman by declaring that

women ife of

, dedicated a chapter in his book, Principles of Freedom, to the subject of

nationalist womanhood. MacSwiney adopted Yeats’s archetype and transitioned it fro

fiction to history by depicting the “beautiful” patriotism of the wife of Wolfe Tone

leader of the 1798 rebellion. MacSwiney described the actions of Tone’s wife as she

stoically wishes him luck on his trip to France to solicit aid for the rebellion:

When, in the beginning of his enterprise, he is in America, preparing to go

defenceless ones. In the crisis how does his wife act? Does she wind

early vows, and beseeching him to think of his love and forget his

whose zeal for my honour and in

children stand for a moment in the way of my engagements to our friends 31

e the ideal countenance of a Republican woman, as demonstrated by the

ance of Mrs. Tone: “how through all her misfortunes we watch her with

ful dignity, delicacy, courage, and devotion quick to see what her trust de

32

woman not only willingly sends her husband, brother and son off to a battle that he is

sure to lose, but also, is a delicate and dignified creature throughout the entire process.

MacSwiney ended his analysis of

in the early twentieth century should strive to emulate the examples of the w

Wolfe Tone and Cathleen Ni Houlihan, not the examples of the suffragists: “She must

reedom.

31 Terence J. MacSwiney, Principles of Freedom (1921). Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/13132 (accessed June 17, 2008). 32 MacSwiney, Principles of F

Pg. 24

understand that greater than the need of the suffrage is the more urgent need of ma

her fellow-woman spirited and self-reliant, ready rather to anticipate a danger than to

evade it.”

king

as

politica women

comple en in the Irish

nationa at times

acquies ased

upon gender.” The “new Irish heroine” was not passive, but instead, looked to the

nationalist movement as an opportunity for women to assert their own right to be free and

independent alongside with Ireland’s right to be free and independent.

33 MacSwiney, like other Irish political leaders of the period, believed that the

suffrage movement was a feminist ploy to “evade” the dangers of the impending

rebellion, as he made clear in Principles of Freedom.

While some women continued to cling to this definition of the Irish heroine

l tension on the Emerald Isle began to grow in the early 1900s, many

tely rejected it and chose to mold a new sort of Irish heroine. “Wom

list tradition have played many different roles,” Margaret Ward explains, “

cent and passive, at times highly radical and deeply critical of restrictions b

34

33 MacSwiney, Principles of Freedom.

’s liberation: the Irish ster: Manchester University Press, 1998),

34 Margaret Ward, “National liberation movements and the question of womenexperience,” in C. Midgely, ed. Gender and Imperialism (Manche108.

Pg. 25

Chapter 4: The Catholic Church and Nationalism

The Irish nationalist tradition dripped with inconsistencies in regards to its

Catholic-Nationalist policies. First, Ireland was never a purely Catholic nation. Many of

the myths and traditions of Irish culture actually revolve around its pre-Christian h

and the worship of a mother-goddess. In fact, the Celtic

eritage

cross that is associated with the

Catholi

c Church in Ireland is actually a synthesis of Christianity and the ancient, Celtic

faith. The Celtic cross combines the symbolic cross that represents the crucifixion of

Jesus Christ with a symbolic circle that represents the worship of the sun god, the highest

god in the polytheistic, ancient Celtic religion. See first image below.

This cross, which became a symbol of the Celtic revival in Victorian Ireland in the 1860s,

represented more than just subservience to the Vatican. It also represented a renewed

desire to connect Ireland’s present with its unique ancient past. The Celtic Cross gained

even more prominence in 1884 when Michael Cusack of County Clare created the Gaelic

Athletic Association GAA and used the Celtic Cross as its founding symbol. See second

image above. The purpose of the GAA was to promote the use and resurgence of the

Irish language through sport, music, storytelling, dancing and other traditionally Irish

iviti popularity of the Celtic cross and used it to create act es. Cusack noticed the surging

a marketing strategy for his new Irish cultural organization. The GAA gained popularity

Pg. 26

very quickly throu eltic Cross with

the Iris egan

Association contributed significantly by producing a generation of young

hostility towards the government, state institutions, and the forces of law

s symbolic

associations with both the Celtic and Catholic faiths gave its members a spiritual mission

as well – promote the faith in Ireland and be rid of ties to all other faiths.

Apart from Ireland’s Celtic past, the role played by Protestants in weaving the

fabric of Ireland’s national identity is often subsumed in the folds of Catholicism. Many

Protestants, specifically the Anglo-Irish, have played an important role in establishing

Ireland’s separatist movement. In fact, the separatist movement in Ireland ated

with the Anglo-Irish and not with the Catholic-Irish. As Richard Kearney explains, “The

founding fathers of the separatist Irish tradition were Protestant rather than Catholic …

due to the Protestants’ near-monopoly of higher education in Ireland up to the twentieth

century.”

ghout Ireland and Irish people began associating the C

h language, sport and musical traditions. In this way, Irish cultural leaders b

to tie Irish identity into the history of Ireland’s polytheistic and monotheistic religious

past.

The impact of this upsurge in nationalism was tremendous;

Although not formally involved in the 1916 Rising, the Gaelic Athletic

men with a sense of national identity, an extreme nationalist ethos, and a

and order.35

The purpose of the GAA was to promote a sense of Irish identity, but it

origin

36

35 “Michael Cusack, Maurice Davin and the Gaelic Athletic Association,” The 1916 Rising: Personalities and Perspectives, The National Library of Ireland, Website, http://www.nli.ie/1916/pdf/3.4.1.pdf (accessed 15 March 2009).

1997), 7. 36 Richard Kearney, Postnationalist Ireland: Politics, Culture, Philosophy, (New York: Routledge,

Pg. 27

In fact, according to Kearney, the Catholic hierarchy was not allied with Irish

nationalism when it first appeared in Ireland in the late 1700s mainly “because it feared

the nationalist-republican ideas being imported into Ireland from the French Revolution

were an

ti-Catholic.”37 In fact, the fear of French-tinged “republican-ness” caused the

Irish Ca estminster during

the eigh Vatican

for the arent to

the Iris and Catholicism could go hand-in-hand until the Gaelic revival

ed the pro-

Ireland

observes this; “a government made up of a body but no head, representing a

society made up of a body but no head … was not a particularly viable formula for

identifying how the decisions involved in managing change might be made.”38

tholic hierarchy to seek shelter under the protective roof of W

teenth and nineteenth centuries. There would be no abandonment of the

Irish during their quest for a nationalist identity, and it did not become app

h that separatism

movement in the late 1800s.

However, elements of Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes’s approach to national

sovereignty began to appear in Ireland when in 1905Arthur Griffith found

political party, Sinn Fein and introduced “The Sinn Fein Policy.” Sieyes’s

nationalist philosophies defined the ideals of French Revolutionary republicanism. Much

of Griffith’s foundational ideas for Sinn Fein and the Irish nationalist movement share

uncanny characteristics with Sieyes’s foundational ideas for the French Republican

movement. For instance, Sieyes insisted that a government that effectively supported the

individual liberty of its people must be a dual-monarchy. Sieyes believed that severing

the monarchy from the people would leave the government leaderless. Michael

Sonenscher

37 Richard Kearney, 7.

Michael Sonenscher, Sieyes: Political Writings (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2003), xix. 38

Pg. 28

Sonenscher continues his analysis of Sieyes’s political formula by directing

attention to Sieyes’s strong belief that a dual-monarchy could atone for both the sins of a

pure monarchical system and those of a pure, democratic republic:

Republics standardly elected their rulers, but sometimes paid a price for

standardly inherited their rulers, but sometimes paid a price for doing so,

mechanism for legitimating legislation. One major strand of eighteenth-

rule could be combined.

doing so, in political dissension and executive weakness. Monarchies

in complicated systems of administration and the absence of any obvious

century thought centered upon the question of how far the two systems of

losophy in establishing Sinn Fein and the dogma that would

accomp

entitled The Resurrection of Hungary: A Parallel for Ireland in which he

Austria-Hungary. In 1905 Griffith expounded the policy, which

the name Sinn Féin meaning ‘ourselves’.

The Gaelic meaning of the name Sinn Fein, “ourselves,” resonates with Sieyes’s entire

political theory – that the purpose of government is to emphasize individual liberty.

Griffith used Sieyes’s philosophy to establish the individual liberty of the Gaelic-Irish.

Griffith did not establish Sinn Fein to be a Catholic-Nationalist organization. In

fact, his original model for Sinn Fein represented Sieyes’s republican model more than

the pro-Catholicism political party into which it later evolved. Arthur Griffith was never

able to achieve the dual-monarchy that he hoped for because the fear of “anti-religious

French influence” was too great to overcome. However, by establishing a republican

39

Even with the fear of “anti-religious Frenchness” hanging over his head, Arthur Griffith

drew on Sieyes’s political phi

any it:

In 1904 Griffith published a pamphlet on the 1848 Hungarian Revolution

set out his ideas on Irish independence under a dual monarchy, like that of

emphasised the idea of national self-reliance. He set up a movement under 40

39 Michael Sonenscher, xx.

rthur Griffith," The Pursuit of Sovereignty and the Impact of Partition, 1912 09).

40 Tomás O’Riordan, "A- 1949, University College Cork, Ireland, http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Arthur_Griffith (accessed 2 March 20

Pg. 29

movem

allying call for the

Catholi

go hand in hand.

eriod - The entire political and social landscape of Ireland shifted

dramat me

politica phases

of Irish er

ising and the increased popularity of Sinn Fein supplied the proper backdrop for the

Church to begin linking Catholicism with Irishness.

How was the linkage between Ireland and Catholicism continuously brought to

the eyes of the Irish people during the war for independence? Father Kenney explained

that the church used what it already had at its disposal to draw upon a sentiment of

Catholic nationalism in Ireland – the monuments and crosses of Ireland’s Catholic past.

Thus the Catholic who stands on the streets of Ballycastle has, almost

Church in every age. So it is throughout Ireland. Each step one takes is

in Ireland, first consideration must be given to the pervading presence …

ent in a country that was very conscious of its Catholic majority, he laid the

groundwork for the Church to begin linking nationalism with Catholicism.

Kearney argues that the Easter Rising of 1916 provided the r

c Church to begin linking Catholicness with Irishness:

After the fall of Parnell and 1916, however, it became clear to the Church that the soul of the Irish nation was up for grabs and that the need for a unifying collective identity for the newly emerging state could best be provided by a form of Catholic nationalism which allowed (in Joyce’s words) ‘Christ and Caesar 41

In 1916, Sinn Fein evolved from being a Sieyes-based working group to a Catholic-

Nationalist political party. Sinn Fein was not the only group in Ireland experiencing

change in this p

ically after the 1916 Rising; “The Irish revolution of 1916 – 1921, the supre

l upheaval of the present generation, has had powerful repercussions on all

life, and not the least the religious.”42 Thus, it can be asserted that the East

R

within a stone’s throw of him, visible monuments of the history of his

planted on historic, indeed on holy, ground. In any survey of Catholicism

41 Kearney, 7-8. 42 James F. Kenney, “The Catholic Church in Contemporary Ireland,” The Catholic Historical Review 18, no. 2 (July 1932): 162.

Pg. 30

of Catholic history. … By reason even of purely secular, though non-

fathers.material, influences the Irishman cannot but be loyal to the faith of his

The Ch t

by Father Kenney, the

church thers

and gra f the

generat way, the church connected the

of

lives

to

atholic countries in general, in

Catholi ine

herself?

43

urch re-described locations and monuments with a new religious zeal that had no

necessarily existed prior to the Easter Rising. As demonstrated

used Ireland’s past to create a sense of connectedness with the present: if fa

ndfathers had died in the fight for Catholic Ireland, was it not the duty o

ion of the early 1900s to do the same? In this

secular past with the religious present.

As Sinn Fein’s hold on Ireland increased, the Catholic Church took advantage

this political climate and became an extraordinarily powerful force in the everyday

of Irish people. The traditional mindset of the church discouraged the Irish women’s

movement from making significant strides towards achieving the right to vote. Margaret

Fine-Davis elaborates on the Church’s influence on the political role of women: “A

further factor, not to be underestimated, is the strong influence of the Catholic Church,

which 95% of the population belongs. Even among C

Ireland the Church has had a particularly strong influence on the formation and

maintenance of traditional values surrounding women’s roles.”44

In order to address the subject of the church’s influence on the suffrage

movement, two key questions must be asked. One, what did society imagine an Irish-

c woman to be during the pre-revolutionary era, two, how did she imag

89): 287-308.

43 Kenney, 161. 44 Margret Fine-Davis, “Attitudes toward the Role of Women as Part of a Larger Belief System,” Political Psychology 10, no. 2 (Jun., 19

Pg. 31

The works of Yeats and MacSwiney clearly reveal that the society surrounding

the Irish separatist movement imagined that the Irish separatist woman promoted Irish

as

at

e war effort might also be viewed as overstepping

the stri t

ale

e is

ch reinforces the idea

that wo

gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be

shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the lect of their duties in the home.45

nationalism by extolling the virtues of femininity – she encouraged men to fight and

prioritized the struggle over her desire for love and companionship. Beyond this, she w

not actually expected to contribute to the Anglo-Irish War; nationalist society only

expected her to hold herself back from protesting it.

This attitude put activist women in a precarious position. Any action taken th

could be perceived as contributing to th

ct boundaries of gender roles. Therefore, with a few very notable exceptions, mos

nationalist women were not able to contribute to the war effort in a particularly

meaningful way.

This challenge created severe problems for Irish women citizens as the War for

Independence drew to a close and the first constitution of Ireland was drawn up. The

male writers of the constitution did not feel as if women had earned the right to the same

sort of Irish citizenship that they had earned. Women had not fought alongside their m

counterparts and, therefore, did not deserve the same rights as men. This attitud

detailed in the language of the First Irish Constitution of 1937, whi

men belong in the home and outside of politics:

In particular, the State recognises that by her life within the home, woman

achieved. The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers

neg

the Taoiseach, “Constitution of Ireland,” published online November 2004,

0445 Department ofhttp://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/attached_files/html%20files/Constitution%20of%20Ireland%20(Eng)Nov20.htm (accessed 2 March 2009).

Pg. 32

This cl

n

ey

e or

onstitution did not specify which occupations women did not have the

strength s

here was a dramatic shift in the

landsca After

the gun e

suffrag defined as a battle for Catholicism. This

sentiment was not lost in the Constitution of 1937. Articles 44.1, 44.2 and 44.3 designate

te

ause did not, by any means, demand that women stay in the home. However, it

did set a precedent for establishing government programs to keep women outside the

realms of business, law, politics and academia. It also perpetuated the idea that wome

primarily belonged in the home. This was particularly upsetting to the suffragists and

female activists who had energetically contributed to the Anglo-Irish War and felt th

deserved a status beyond that of homemaker.

However, the constitution went into further detail about the limits of women’s

capabilities in the new Irish state. Section 45.2 stated how “the inadequate strength of

women and the tender age of children shall not be abused, and women or children shall

not be forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their sex, ag

strength.”46 The c

to occupy, and left the question open-ended, for employers, fathers and husband

to decide.

The anti-feminist language of the Constitution of 1937 shocked the feminist

community in Dublin. The Proclamation of 1916 had been filled with phrases promising

all Irish people equal access to the rights, privileges and duties associated with

independent citizenship. In doing so, it extolled the virtues of women in the fight for

Irish nationalism. However, as has already been noted, t

pe of nationalist sentiment once the drama of the Easter Rising concluded.

s were fired and the heroes were made, there was no longer room for th

ists – the battle for nationalism was re

the “special position” of religion in the new Irish State. Article 44.2 stated, “The Sta 46 Department of the Taoiseach, “Constitution of 1937.”

Pg. 33

recognises the special position of the Holy Catholic Apostolic and Roman Church as th

guardian of the Faith professed by the great majority of the citizens.”

e

s

nfirmed in Article 3 of the Constitution of

en

the

absence of concern for women’s political agency in the Irish Constitution of

,

t the self

our

47

Many Irish women truly felt betrayed by this new constitution. Mary Kettle,

chairwoman of the Irish Women Graduates’ Association and sister of Hannah Sheehy-

Skeffington, declared that “the omission of the principle of equal rights and opportunitie

enunciated in the Proclamation of 1916 and co

the Saorstat Éireann was … sinister and retrogressive.”48 However, the voices of wom

such as Mary Kettle were subsumed by the all-encompassing Catholic-inspired

legislation prohibiting divorce and suggesting that women remain in the home.

Ironically, Eamon De Valera, the first President of the Republic of Ireland and one of

main writers of the Constitution of 1937, was educated by Kettle’s uncle, Father Eugene

Sheehy.

The

1937 can be studied as a type of trauma, using the historical theories of Jenny Edkins

scholar of historical trauma. Edkins approaches trauma studies by exploring trauma’s

role in the relationship between the self and the other. She begins by noting tha

is not a unified whole. Instead, she claims, it is actually an entity composed of

contradictory pieces. Edkins states that a person’s perceived sense of self is the result of

believing that that the pieces of their self form a unified whole and that this wholeness

justifies their position within their social order: “Our existence relies not only on

personal survival as individual beings but also, in a very profound sense, on the

47 Department of the Taoiseach, “Constitution of 1937.” 48 Peter Beresford Ellis, “De Valera’s Betrayal of the Women of 1916,” The Irish Democrat,

spap -betrayal/ (accessed 2 March 2009). New er, http://www.irishdemocrat.co.uk/features/de-valeras

Pg. 34

continuance of the social order that gives our existence meaning and dignity.”49 In the

case of women in Ireland, many Irish women believed themselves to be an integral part

nflict

was a

o what they believed to be a cultural dispute, and then told that they were not

fully pa

rt

to be an

of the “whole” of the Irish nation-state. Some Irish women played active roles in the

Easter Rising of 1916, held leadership positions on the Sinn Fein executive council and

sacrificed alongside Irish men during the several hundred years of rebellion leading up to

Irish independence. However, the majority of Irish women believed that by acting

unselfishly and sending their loved ones off to fight, they were also playing an important

role in the formation of the Irish nation-state. Additionally, since much of the co

was posited in ethnic terms, many Irish women felt that being a citizen of Ireland

natural right belonging to all people who were ethnically Irish. However, the 1937

Constitution posits citizenship as a right belonging only to men. Thus, women had been

drawn int

rt of the culture after the fighting was over.

Yet, Irish men demonstrated an unfaltering belief that Irish women were not pa

of the “cohesive whole” that won the Irish War for Independence by barring them from

gaining political rights in the Irish Constitution of 1937. This lack of acknowledgement

prevented Irish women from achieving the “sense of dignity” that was supposed

integral piece of being part of a social order, as described by Jenny Edkins. How did

Irish women achieve “meaning” in their identity when the nation of Ireland was so

unwilling to afford them the sense of dignity that would envelope them into the

wholeness of Irish nationalism?

49 Jenny Edkins, Trauma and the Memory of Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Pres2003), 5.

s,

Pg. 35

Edkins’ theory becomes more complex when she goes on to explain that the sen

of wholeness that people feel within society is a product of social constructions. Trauma

occurs when it is brought to a person’s attention that their perceived unified identity do

not exist, “By situating ourselves as citizens of a state or political authority or as

members of a family, we reproduce the social institution at the same time as assuming

our own identity as part of it. As we have seen, in what we call a traumatic event th

group betrays us.”

se

es

is

r

as not in the

realm o

tempts to

ist movements that did spring up were battered by the

conservatism of Irish society and condemnation by the Catholic Hierarchy.”51 By

50 Irish women reproduced the social institution of the Church-State

alliance and were betrayed when the constitution left them out of the political process.

The hypothesis posited by this thesis is that Irish women used religion to atone fo

the gap between being an “Other” and being part of the cohesive “whole.” Since

“Catholicness” was bound to “Irishness” by 1916, women had to become as Catholic as

possible in order to make up for their perceived lack of Irishness. It was in the realm of

possibility for women in the early 1900s to become very religious – it w

f possibility to become militant or political. Therefore, by over-extending

themselves into the world of religiosity, there was a sense among Irish women that they

were moving towards the “whole.”

However, when women lobbied for the vote, they were pushed even farther away

from the “whole” of Irish society. Finnegan and McCarron argue that the Catholic

Church labeled social change as “anti-Catholic” and therefore, “anti-Irish;” “The

conservatism of Irish Catholicism has had the historical impact of diminishing at

generate social reform. … The left

innegan and McCarron, 203. 50 Edkins, 8. 51 F

Pg. 36

disobey

farther

because

vote?

t thought and following the teachings of the Roman

Catholi

estion

movement. Ward describes early twentieth century Dublin as a city brimming with new

ing the social norms that defined the uniqueness of Irish society, women

destroyed their chances of ever being a part of it. Irish women suffragists were caught in

a double-bind; the Constitution of 1937 proved to them that they were not part of the

cohesive “whole,” yet lobbying for social change and equality pushed them even

away from the “whole.”

Religiosity also provided a means for the “betrayal” described by Edkins. The

theology of the Catholic Church taught that women were inferior to men and should

subordinate themselves accordingly. Therefore, the “betrayal” was more acceptable

theology provided for its spiritual justification. Additionally, since Irishness and

Catholicness were intertwined, by the time the Constitution was written, most Irish

women were probably expecting a subordination clause that would recreate the hierarchy

of the church within the hierarchy of the government.

Edkins theory begs the question, was it possible for Catholic women in early

twentieth century Ireland to remain true to their faith while also seeking the right to

History overwhelming proves that this was not possible. The best example of the

difficulty between supporting feminis

c Church can be observed in the study of Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington, the Susan

B. Anthony of Ireland.

Margaret Ward, historian of Irish and British feminism, approaches the qu

of Catholicism’s relationship with feminism by studying Dublin at the turn of the

twentieth century, and by focusing her research on the subject of Hannah Sheehy-

Skeffington, arguably the most notable Irish feminist in the Irish woman’s suffrage

Pg. 37

patterns of intellect and beliefs about Ireland’s place in the world. She argues tha

was more to Dublin at the beginning of this era than pubs and poverty – there was a

middle class that had little financial stability to lean on, but was a great mass of intelle

waiting on the edge of its seat to be accessed.

Fin-de-siecle Dub

t there

ct

lin was much like fin-de-siecle Vienna. Dublin did not have

Freud,

n

urse

ty

e Sheehy-Skeffington until she

married cle

f to

Irish Parliamentary Party. As a result of his political title, his

devoutl

racted

rings.

but it possessed its own intelligentsia. The members of this group included the

likes of James Joyce, renowned Irish writer, and Arthur Griffith, the creator of the Sin

Fein movement. These bright minds spent their days considering the best possible co

of action for their second-class country – socialism, dual monarchism, Catholic

nationalism, and unionism were often discussed in the debating societies of Universi

College, Dublin as well as in the parlors of middle class patrons.

The young Hannah Sheehy (who did not becom

Francis Skeffington in 1903) found herself in the middle of an intellectual cir

composed of Catholic MPs, professors and other Dublin-bourgeoisie as her parents

hosted weekly “teas” where many of the intelligentsia came together under one roo

discuss ways to merge their desire for an independent Ireland with the trendiest political

philosophies of the day. Hannah’s father, David Sheehy, was an ex-Fenian and a

Westminster MP of the

y Catholic views and his association with a pro-Ireland party, David Sheehy had a

small degree of prominence amongst the Dublin middle-class. His social status att

all types of Catholic, Dublin elite to the Sheehy family’s once-a-week parlor gathe

The Sheehy parlor could very well have been the first place in which Arthur Griffith

discussed his idea for the creation of Sinn Fein. This could also have been the place in

Pg. 38

which James Joyce received commentary on his latest manuscript. There is very little

record of these weekly meetings, but with such guests, it is sure that conversations w

filled with talk of politics and nationalism.

Ward argues that this circle of intellects

ere

was likely the place where Hannah

Sheehy e

e

lic roots

man who was on the

verge o g

ate

-Skeffington “found her voice” and learned that it was possible to step outside th

epitomized mold for a twentieth-century Irish-Catholic woman. She was able to leave th

comfort of conformity because conformity never managed to embrace her in its folds –

after all, James Joyce, the rebel-writer, had been a close friend of the family and attended

their weekly teas. Joyce earned infamy in Ireland by rejecting his Roman Catho

and living with a woman with whom he was not married. His presence in the Sheehy

household surely had an influence on an impressionable young wo

f discovering her own insignificance at the moment in which Joyce was rejectin

the church. Hannah Sheehy was never a member of a circle of happy conformists;

therefore, it is no surprise that she continued to surround herself with suffragists,

nationalists and Irish rebels throughout her educated adulthood.52

Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington outgrew her childhood and emerged in Dublin

society as a leader for college-educated women. She founded the Womens’ Gradu

Association in 1901 after obtaining both her bachelors and masters degree in modern

languages and studying briefly at women’s colleges in France and Germany. She

obtained a teaching position in Dublin and contributed controversial articles on feminism

and nationalism to two nationalist journals – The Nation and Bean na hÉireann, the

52 Margaret Ward, Hanna Sheehy Skeffinton: A Life (Cork: Attic Press, 1997).

Pg. 39

53 She writes eloquently and emphatically in Bean na

hÉireann on the subject of the suffrage movement’s relationship with the nationalist

movement. In Bean na hÉireann, she adamantly emphasizes the common goals between

the suff hould

of

ated that Yeats based

any o

da

rage movement and the nationalist movement: “No right thinking Irelander s

put the freedom of a sex before the freedom of a nation, or the freedom of a nation before

the freedom of a sex.”54 She is clear in her view that separatism and independence for

Ireland should not trump suffrage for women. Ireland deserved both rights and both had

to come to Ireland at the same time.

The newspaper in which Hannah Sheehy Skeffington frequently published

throughout the early 1900s, Bean na hÉireann, provided a platform for Irish women to

discuss concerns unique to women about nationalism and separatism. The newspaper

was published by the very first Irish women’s nationalist group, Inghinidhe na hÉireann,

which was founded by Maud Gonne in 1900. Gonne was a member of the same

intellectual circle as Hannah Sheehy Skeffington – she was a close personal friend

William Butler Yeats, indeed, some of Yeats’s friends even specul

m f his fictional, female characters on her.

Inghinidhe na hÉireann attempted to merge Catholicness with its political agen

for Irish women upon its inception: “Inghinidhe na hÉireann … was solely for women

and adopted Saint Brigid as patron. Its agenda was political, social and feminist: it

opposed the Irish Parliamentary Party and Home Rule … but supported … the concepts

53 Tomás O’Riordan, "Hannah Sheehy Skeffington," Movements for Political and Social Reform, 1870 - 1914, University College Cork, Ireland, http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Hanna_Sheehy-Skeffington (accessed 15 March 2009). 54 Hannah Sheehy Skeffington, “Free Women in a Free Nation,” Bean na hÉireann, 1909, vol. 1, no.

atio4, N nal Library of Ireland.

Pg. 40

of self reliance preached by Sinn Fein … and women’s suffrage.”55 The purpose of

Maud Gonne’s group was to promote the role of women in achieving nationalist goals

However, Hannah Sheehy Skeffington, among others, felt that Inghinidhe na hÉireann

placed too much emphasis on promoting nationalism and not enough on promoting

suffrage at the same time.

Sheehy Skeffington had a valid point. Inghinidhe na hÉireann’s largest recorded

success involved a children’s rally, and is detailed in the group’s first annual report,

written by Maud Gonne:

.

tried to make use of the innocent children, and in the English Queen’s

in Phoenix Park. … To the credit of our brave little ones let it be said, they

proselytizers. … Inghinidhe na hÉireann, proud of the sturdy resistance of

and at once opened a subscription and organized the “Patriotic Children’s

1900. 30,000 children marched in procession.

Inghinidhe na hÉireann’s first major rally was a success – Queen Victoria’s event with

the children of Ireland was largely ruined and the people of Dublin came together to

reward the children for their protest immediately after. However, the event did not

showcase the political aptitude of the group – instead, it reemphasized social norms

relegating women to the realm of children instead of the realm of politics.

This is not to criticize the event, for it was a huge success for Maud Gonne and

Inghinidhe na hÉireann; however, it also proved to women like Sheehy-Skeffington that

On the occasion of Queen Victoria’s last visit to Ireland, the flunkeys …

name, invited all the School Children of Ireland to attend a demonstration

resisted the inducement of cakes, sweets, and oranges held out by the jingo

the little Dublin Children, resolved to reward them for their patriotism,

Treat,” which was held at Clonturk Park, Dublin, on Sunday July 1st, 56

55 “Maud Gonne MacBride and Inghinidhe na hÉireann,” The 1916 Rising: Personalities and Perspectives, 1901, The National Library of Ireland, Website, http://www.nli.ie/1916/pdf/3.2.3.pdf (accessed 15 March 2009). 56 Maud Gonne, Inghinidhe na hÉireann: First Annual Report (Dublin: O’Brien and Ards, 1901), National Library of Ireland.

Pg. 41

Maud Gonne was perhaps unwilling to push the limits of Irish society’s understandin

the role of women. The children’s protest was Inghinidhe na hÉireann’s first and last big

success in Dublin. In 1914, Inghinidhe na hÉireann was absorbed into Cumann na

mBann, the women’s auxiliary wing of the Irish Volunteers, and women were relega

to performing traditional “w

g of

ted

omen’s duties” for the group.57

ical Union in Great Britain have already been discussed. But it

is also

unwilli

Skeffin dhe

na hÉir h for

guidanc down a

more political and militant path. She describes the group’s activities:

We held parades, processions, pageants ... We had colours (orange and

ingenuity of many good publicity devices and stunts ... and became a

own ... meeting hecklers on their own ground, being good-humoured and

ripe tomatoes, bags of flour, stinking chemicals, gradually earned respect

dish washing and sewing for the Volunteers. IWFL members had a much more colorful

In 1908, along with Margaret Cousins, Sheehy-Skeffington founded the Irish

Women’s Franchise League. The reasons for creating this group in opposition to the

Women’s Social and Polit

important to note that this group was created in response to its members’

ngness to be absorbed into Cumann na mBann and the Volunteers. Sheehy

gton wanted to engage in policy, not just in support services. Unlike Inghini

eann, the IWFL did not have a patron saint and did not look to the churc

e in conducting its activities. Sheehy-Skeffington led her organization

green), a Votes for Women badge, slogans; we made use with feminine

picturesque element in Irish life ... women speakers who could hold their

capable of keeping their temper under bombardments of rotten eggs, over-

and due attention.58

It is important to note Sheehy-Skeffington’s recognition that the IWFL was not

heeding Dublin society’s definition of gender roles – Sheehy-Skeffington did not discuss

57 “Maud Gonne MacBride and Inghinidhe na hÉireann.”

ement, 1889-1922 (Dublin: Attic Press, 1984), 66.

58 Hannah Sheehy Skeffinton, quoted in Rosemary Cullen Owens, Smashing times: a History of theIrish Women’s Suffrage Mov

Pg. 42

agenda and, as noted by Sheey-Skeffington, began their campaign to win over the hearts

and minds of Dublin society amidst significant backlash. In fact, Sheehy Skeffington

was involved in several violent protests for the cause:

She was imprisoned for five days in 1912 for breaking several window

franchise in the Third Home Rule Bill. She was a clopanes of the War Office in protest at the exclusion of women from the

se associate of the labour leader James Connolly. During the Dublin 1913 lock-out, she

of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union. She was jailed again,

Conservative leader, Bonar Law, in Dublin. She went on hunger strike and

-lady

,

disgust that Ireland

was “ra e like,

with a v f a failure

in revo urch-

bound, isgust,

Sheehy-Skeffington also refused to baptize her son, Owen Sheehy-Skeffington.

Additionally, she sent him to the non-denominational Sandford Park School in Dublin,

thus avoiding the Catholic educational system all together.

worked in the soup kitchen set up in Liberty Hall, the Dublin headquarters

this time for assaulting a policeman, while attempting to leaflet the

was released after five days.59

Clearly, Sheehy-Skeffington did not care if Dublin society believed her to be “un

like.”

It is also important to note that Sheehy-Skeffington completely abandoned the

Catholic Church during the course of her work with the IWFL. In 1932, well after the

franchise was won and full independence for Ireland was beginning to become a reality

she discussed Ireland’s relationship with the Vatican and explained in

pidly becoming a catholic statelet under Rome’s grip – censorship and th

ery narrow provincial outlook, plus a self-satisfied smugness. Result o

lution really. I have no belief in de Valera…essentially conservative and ch

anti-feminist, bourgeois and the rest.”60 In addition to this expression of d

59 Tomás O’Riordan, "Hannah Sheehy Skeffington.”

Skeffington Papers, MS 24,134, National rary

60 Hanna Sheehy Skeffington to Esther Roper, n.d. SheehyLib of Ireland.

Pg. 43

The character of Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington and her personal decision to leave

the folds of the Church speaks to the difficulty of maintaining religious values while

conducting a feminist movement in twentieth-century Ireland. However, the success of

the IWF ann and

Cuman th

century dings

of their a society that

defined its need for independence by its unique relationship to the Vatican, this was no

had been won, there were still many barriers to independence for women in the

L in comparison to the lack of progress reached by Inghinidhe na hÉire

n na mBann proves that the circumstances surrounding women in twentie

Dublin demanded that women put aside their religious and social understan

position in society if they wanted to achieve suffrage. However, in

easy feat. Once the suffragists had achieved the right to vote and independence for

Ireland

new, Catholic Ireland.

Pg. 44

Conclusion

Thus far, this thesis has conceptualized the feminist movement in twentieth

century Ireland in terms of political agency and in particular, the right to vote. However,

the Roman Catholic Church’s unique relationship to the nationalist/feminist debate adds

second layer to the “woman question” in twentieth century Ireland – the role of the

female body in creating a Catholic nationalist state.

The purest teachings of the Catholic Church preach against the practice of

premarital sexual relations as well as the usage of birth control, even for married couple

Part of the fight for the creation of a Catholic, nationalist state was the transition of

Catholic beliefs from religious doctrine into state law. Upon the inception of the Irish

nation state in 1937, do

a

s.

ctrine was put into practice and birth control became illegal in

Ireland. Apart from relegating women to the home and making it nearly impossible for

women to work, the Constitution of 1937 also took away their bodily agency. Why was

this necessary? Cynthia Enloe suggests that an alternative motivation besides supreme

religiosity may have been at work. She claims that the ban of birth control was related to

a much larger strategy for militarizing mothers:

Militarizing motherhood often starts with conceptualizing the womb as a recruiting station. Government officials who have adopted a pro-natalist policy – using state resources to press women (especially those women of ‘trusted’ ethnic or racial groups) to have more children – frequently have cast that policy in militarized terms. That is, a woman who has more children - sons, preferably - is a woman who is contributing to ‘national security.61

Thus, Enloe proposes that the birth control policy implemented in Ireland was part of a

larger, “national security” strategy to create more potential members of the military.

61 Cynthia Enloe, Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women’s Lives (Berkeley: The University of California Press, 2000), 248.

Pg. 45

According to Enloe, women who const th are “the greatest patriots” because

ole

ent resonates with Yeats’

profound effect on Irish nationalism, women survive in legend as the

who were dispossessed by the British, but the mothers. … Women’s claim

the nation in their own right.

Women gave birth to the heroes, but were never heroes themselves.

Additionally, according to Catholic doctrine, if they refused this role and decided

to reject the teachings of the Church and use birth control in their marriages, their souls

were condemned. Women were simply trapped – society and the church expected them

to have lots of children and their only options for avoiding a lifetime of pregnancy were

to leave the country, join a convent or remain single.

Northe rt

below, y. In

936/1937, the average number of children aged 0 – 4 compared to the average number

of women between the ages of 20 – 44 was 53/100. After the new constitution was

implemented in 1937, the number of children compared to the number of children

antly give bir

they are constantly creating new patriots. Thus, the only patriotic contribution that a

woman could make to such a society was the creation of a new patriot.

In fact, according to Sarah Benton, motherhood was the only calling for women

during the foundation of independent Ireland. Benton’s observations regarding the r

of women in Ireland during the independence movem

description of Cathleen Ni Houlihan, the idyllic Irish woman patriot:

Like the Boers, whose war against the mighty British Empire had a

suffering and bereaved mothers. It was not the sexual partners of men

is thus, in legend, to be protected and revered as mothers; not to be making 62

Research by the American Sociological Review conducted in Ireland and

rn Ireland during the 1970s attests to this theory. As can be seen in the cha

dramatic shifts occurred in Irish reproduction during the twentieth centur

1

t 62 Sarah Benton, “Women Disarmed: The Militarization of Politics in Ireland 1913 - 1921,” Feminis

Review 50 (Summer 1995): 161.

Pg. 46

compared to women able to give birth was 61/100, as can be seen from the data collected

in 1946. This is an increase of eight children for every one hundred women capable o

reproducing. See chart below.

f

63 Kennedy does not use his study to claim that the increased power of the Church

was the only reason why reproduction increased so dramatically. However, he does

suggest that the Catholic Church’s policy on birth control and its new, legal authority in

the Iris

om

r all

h state played a large role in increasing the Irish-Catholic population.64

Additionally, it should be noted that Ireland’s neutrality during WWII prevented it fr

being highly effected by the baby-boomer phenomenon.65

Thus, even though women in Ireland obtained the franchise and were able to see

an independent Irish state secured, their lives were not necessarily made easier. Afte 63 Robert E. Kennedy, Jr., “Minority Group Status and Fertility: The Irish,” American SociolReview, 38 (February 1973): 86.

ogical

64 Kennedy, Jr., 86.

ckinghamshire: The Kensal Press, 1984), 360. 65 John Biggs-Davison and George Chowdharay-Best, The Cross of Saint Patrick - The Catholic Unionist Tradition in Ireland (Bu

Pg. 47

of the fighting was over, the Catholic Church’s new found power in Ireland influenced

the creation of a constitution that limited the roles that women were able to play in the

government and in their own homes. They had the right to vote, but were theologically

bound to vote for their own subordination.

Women such as Maud Gonne and Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington created social and

political groups in an attempt to ensure that Irish women were not left behind during the

formation of the Irish nation state. However, promises that were made to women in the

1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic were not kept. This is clearly demonstrated by

the anti-feminist nature of the Constitution of 1937. Feminist groups that adopted

Catholic-leaning policies such as Maud Gonne’s Inghinidhe na hÉireann proved to be an

abysmal failure from both a feminist and a political perspective. This is demonstrated by

Inghinidhe na hÉireann’s absorption into the women’s auxiliary corps of the Irish

Volunteers, the group’s relegation to performing trivial household tasks for the

Volunteers, and the group’s inability to achieve its feminist agenda.

phere of

fington and the IWFL did not

heed the spiritual advice being given to them by the Catholic Church. The IWFL

ceed

lf from social and religious norms. However, the

Feminist groups without religious associations such as Hannah Sheehy-

Skeffington’s Irish Women’s Franchise League proved to be more successful than

Inghinidhe na hÉireann. It was the IWFL’s militant suffrage society that actually earned

the franchise for women in Ireland by conducting its campaign amidst an atmos

hate and violence. The IWFL did not bend to Irish society’s understanding of social

norms and gender roles. Additionally, Hannah Sheehy-Skef

suc ed because of its unreligious, feminist agenda and Inghinidhe na hÉireann failed

sconnect itsedue to its inability to di

Pg. 48

success

es of the IWFL in securing the franchise did not translate into equality for the

women of Ireland. Although they won the battle for the vote, the Church won the war for

control over legislation in early twentieth-century Ireland, influencing policy makers to

keep women in the home and away from government and private enterprise.

Pg. 49

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